“Non-profit PTA sues amid dwindling membership, claims deceit by for-profit rival PTO Today”
by Associated Press
Washington Post
September 26, 2012
The nonprofit PTA sued a for-profit rival on Wednesday, accusing it of denigrating the established group in a bid to siphon off members — a dispute that highlights underlying tensions as parents consider changes in how they interact with their children’s schools.
The National Parent Teacher Association, an iconic group that’s been part of America’s cultural backdrop for more than a century, has seen its membership fall by more than half of the 12 million members it had in its heyday in the 1960s. That decline, at least in part, motivated the PTA to file the lawsuit against PTO Today.
The upstart group put itself on a collision course with the PTA by setting itself up as an alternative.
The 15-page lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Chicago accuses PTO Today of engaging in false advertising, trademark infringement and other deceptive practices to “further continue to encourage members to leave” the PTA.
PTA President Betsy Landers accused PTO Today’s parent company, School Family Media Inc., of “disparaging PTA to drive business their way.” She added that “PTA had no choice but to take legal action to protect its respected name and reputation.”
The lawsuit also accuses School Family Media President Tim Sullivan of contacting PTA members “in an effort to induce them to leave” the older organization.
Sullivan, though, said his group is not to blame for PTA’s woes.
“Their membership started to drop years before our company was in existence, so we are not the cause of their membership dropping,” Sullivan said, adding that a call from an Associated Press reporter Wednesday was the first he heard of the lawsuit.
He added, “I don’t know a single thing we are doing that is against the law.”
The PTA
